Systems and methods for autonomous vehicles with lighting control

• US 10,259,382 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2017
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearpath Robotics, Inc. (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clearpath Robotics, Inc. (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Drexler, Simon, Rendall, Matthew Allen, Gariepy, Ryan Christopher, Hanuschik, Mike, Mohr, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Philogene, Haissa
• Application Number:
  US15/584,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20170232885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 714 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 1/00 Arrangement or mounting of electrical propulsion units B60K7/00 takes precedence; arrangement or mounting of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion B60K6/00; electric transmission arrangements B60K17/12; electric equipment or propulsion of electrically-propelled vehicles per se B60L; current-collectors for power supply lines of electrically-propelled vehicles B60L5/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/08 automatically
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/085 due to special conditions, e.g. adverse weather, type of road, badly illuminated road signs or potential dangers B60Q1/10, B60Q1/12, B60Q1/1423 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/1407 General lighting circuits comprising dimming circuits
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/26 the devices being primarily intended to indicate the vehicle, or parts thereof, or to give signals, to other traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/5037 the display content changing automatically, e.g. depending on traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/507 specific to autonomous vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/543 for indicating other states or conditions of the vehicle indicating taxis' state of hire or fare G07B13/045
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2400/50 Projected symbol or information, e.g. onto the road or car body
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2800/20 Utility vehicles, e.g. for agriculture, construction work
• CPC Class Codes: B60Y 2200/40 Special vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/10 Controlling the intensity of the light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/165 following a pre-assigned programmed sequence; Logic control [LC]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/17 Operational modes, e.g. switching from manual to automatic mode or prohibiting specific operations
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/19 via wireless transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

An autonomous vehicle is disclosed. The vehicle comprises a chassis, two or more drive wheels extending below the chassis, a drive motor housed within the chassis for driving the drive wheels, and a payload surface on top of the chassis for carrying a payload. An illumination system, for emitting light from at least one portion of the chassis, is mounted substantially around the entire perimeter of the chassis. The illumination system may be implemented using an array of light-emitting diodes (“LEDs”) that are arranged as segments. For example, there may be “headlight” segments on the front left and front right corners of the chassis.

Claims

1. An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

a chassis;

two or more drive wheels extending below the chassis;

one or more drive motors housed within the chassis for driving the drive wheels;

a payload surface on top of the chassis for carrying a payload;

a sensor on the front of the chassis;

an illumination system for emitting light from at least a portion of the chassis; and

a processor in communication with the sensor and the illumination system for controlling the illumination;

wherein the processor is configured to control the illumination system to display a first pattern, receive a signal from the sensor based on a detected object, and control the illumination system to display a second pattern based on the signal;

wherein the illumination system is mounted around the entire perimeter of the chassis.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the illumination system comprises an array of light-emitting components.

3. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein the array is configured based on array segments.

4. The vehicle of claim 3, wherein the array segments comprise a first headlight segment on a first front corner of the chassis and a second headlight segment on a second front corner of the chassis.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the array segments comprise a first tail-light segment on a first rear corner of the chassis and a second tail-light segment on a second rear corner of the chassis.

6. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein the light-emitting components are light-emitting diodes (“

LEDs”

).

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a laser-based sensor.

8. The vehicle of claim 7, wherein the laser-based sensor is a LIDAR sensor.

9. A method of controlling an illumination system for an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

storing, in a memory, a plurality of lighting pattern definitions for controlling the illumination system;

receiving, at a processor connected to the memory and the illumination system, state data defining a current state of the autonomous vehicle;

at the processor, selecting one of the lighting patterns based on the state data; and

controlling the illumination system according to the selected lighting pattern definition.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the state data include environmental data defining an object in a vicinity of the autonomous vehicle.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the state data include control data defining operation parameters of the autonomous vehicle.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the control data are associated with a warning condition.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the state data include trajectory data defining a trajectory of the autonomous vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein controlling the illumination system according to the selected lighting pattern definition comprises illuminating a segment of the illumination system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the trajectory of the autonomous vehicle is associated with the vehicle turning left, and the segment of the illumination system is located at a front left corner of the vehicle.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the illumination system is mounted around the entire perimeter of the autonomous vehicle.